SELECTION XI

MY FATHERLAND

There is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by Heaven o’er all the world
beside,
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons imparadise the night.
O land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth!
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting
shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air.
In every clime, the magnet of his soul,
Touched by remembrance, trembles to that
pole;
For, in this land of Heaven’s peculiar
race,
The heritage of nature’s noblest
grace,
There is a spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,
Where man, creation’s tyrant, casts
aside
His sword and scepter, pageantry and pride,
While, in his softened looks, benignly
blend
The sire, the son, the husband, brother,
friend.
Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter,
wife,
Strew with fresh flowers the narrow way
of life;
In the clear heaven of her delightful
eye,
An angel guard of love and graces lie;
Around her knees domestic duties meet,
And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet.
“Where shall that land, that spot
of earth be found?”
Art thou a man?—­a patriot?—­look
round;
Oh, thou shalt find, howe’er thy
footsteps roam,
That land thy country, and that spot thy
home.

James Montgomery.

LESSON XXIX

THE SUN

How far away from us is the sun? Are we to answer
just as we think, or just as we know? On a fine
summer day, when we can see him clearly, it looks
as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his
throne in the sky, yet we know—­because
the astronomers tell us so—­that he is more
than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our
earth.

Ninety-one millions of miles! It is not easy
even to imagine this distance; but let us fancy ourselves
in an express-train going sixty miles an hour without
making a single stop. At that flying rate we
could travel from the earth to the sun in one hundred
and seventy-one years,—­that is, if we had
a road to run on and time to spare for the journey.